Standing among sacks of used supermarket shopping bags, soft drink bottles and detergent containers, Evelin Marcele is scornful of Brazil's efforts to recycle plastic waste. "Almost nothing," said the 40-year-old director of CoopFuturo, a sorting center for recyclable material in Rio de Janeiro, where plastic makes up 60 percent of the roughly 120 tonnes of garbage delivered to the facility every month. Brazil is the fourth biggest producer of plastic rubbish in the world, beaten only by the United States, China and India, according to a recent report published by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). But the Latin American country recycles just 1.28 percent of the 11.4 million tonnes it generates every year, which the WWF said was well below the global average of nine percent. An estimated 7.7 million tonnes of plastic ends up in landfills. "People are consuming more, generating more garbage and the governments didn't prepare the cities with the infrastructure that was required to deal with

The global event, organised by environmental group WWF to push for action on climate change and other man-made threats to the planet, sees nearly 200 major landmarks around the world unplugged at 8:30 pm local time for its 13th annual edition.

The Netherlands and Russia on Friday settled a long-running dispute over the seizure of Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise ship during an oil drilling protest in 2013, with Moscow expected to pay 2.7 million euros (USD 3 million) in compensation. The settlement, reached after the Dutch dragged Moscow to various courts following the incident, was reached after talks between Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. "The Russian Federation and the Kingdom of the Netherlands... have come to a full and final settlement of any and all mutual claims" arising from the incident, the Dutch Foreign Ministry said in a joint statement with Russia. Russian commandos seized the Dutch-flagged ship in September 2013 and detained 30 Greenpeace activists and journalists on board after a protest at an offshore oil rig owned by Russian state oil giant Gazprom. The Dutch government then started several arbitration procedures and in 2017 the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration

Residents of a village in Russia's far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula were stunned by the sight of a polar bear prowling for food hundreds of miles away from its usual habitat. Russian media reported Wednesday that the exhausted-looking animal somehow ended up in the village of Tilichiki, some 700 kilometers (434 miles) south of Kamchatka. Environmentalists said the bear could have lost its sense of direction while drifting on an ice floe. "Due to climate change, the Arctic is getting warmer, hunting environment gets smaller and less convenient," said Vladimir Chuprov of Greenpeace. "The ice is receding, and polar bears look for new ways to survive. And the easiest way is coming to people." Locals were making the bear feel welcome, giving it fish, media reported. Authorities in Kamchatka are preparing a rescue effort later this week. They plan to use a sedative to put the bear to sleep and then airlift it to Chukotka in a helicopter. Polar bears' dependence on sea ice makes them highly ..

India is losing one-horned rhinoceros to rampant poaching despite increased efforts by the government for their protection, said wildlife experts while stressing on the need to sensitise para-military forces to protect the species which is being hunted for its expensive horn. At a workshop on 'National Conservation Strategy for the Indian One Horned Rhinoceros', organised by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the stakeholders brainstormed on an action plan to protect rhinos. The experts said that one of the major concerns was that the one-horned rhinos were moving out of Kaziranga national park in Assam, which has 93 per cent of its entire population, due to reduced grassland habitat and rampant poaching. "Though the rhino numbers have increased in Kaziranga, tree growth has reportedly reduced the grassland habitat. Rhinos from Kaziranga are reported to move out of the park every year during the flood season when they take shelter in higher grounds of the Karbi-Anglong forests in the ...

Just over one-third of the world's 246 longest rivers remain free-flowing, according to a study which found that dams and reservoirs are drastically reducing the diverse benefits offered by healthy rivers. A team of international researchers, including those from McGill University in Canada and World Wildlife Fund (WWF), assessed the connectivity status of 12 million kilometers of rivers worldwide. The study, published in the journal Nature, provides the first-ever global assessment of the location and extent of the planet's remaining free-flowing rivers. Researchers determined that only 21 of the world's 91 rivers longer than 1,000 kilometres that originally flowed to the ocean still retain a direct connection from source to sea. The planet's remaining free-flowing rivers are largely restricted to remote regions of the Arctic, the Amazon Basin, and the Congo Basin. "The world's rivers form an intricate network with vital links to land, groundwater, and the atmosphere," said lead ...

Union minister Harsh Vardhan has discredited the recent global reports claiming over one million deaths in India due to air pollution, saying such studies are only aimed at "causing panic". The Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is contesting the Lok Sabha polls from Chandni Chowk constituency in the national capital. In an interview to PTI, the BJP leader said his government is working hard to tackle the problem of pollution and has been supporting the AAP-led Delhi government in this direction. "We are doing our best to handle air pollution. The number of (achhe din) good days are consistently going up and bad days coming down," he said. "Regarding the high-profile data of millions of deaths, I do not agree with that because pollution can cause premature illness and other things. Pollution does affect health, but to create such a panicky situation and say millions of people are dying, I do not agree with that," Vardhan told PTI. A report by environment NGO Greenpeace

Green activists Friday expressed concern over "evasive behaviour" of political parties towards environmental issues in the city, urging Delhiites to consider air pollution and climate change while casting votes in the general elections. "We want clean air, safe food and clean energy--jal, jungle aur zameen (water, forest and land)," was the slogan raised by the activists who held a discussion on climate change with residents of Shrinivaspuri in south Delhi. Organised by NGO Greenpeace India and YMCA, the talk called 'Climate Samvad' saw participation from various environmental NGOs and local residents, who signed a document called the 'Green Charter' to demand clean air from the new government. Delhi will vote on May 12 in the Lok Sabha elections. Residents said they will urge, whoever they vote for, to fulfil the demands listed in the charter to ensure clean air, safe food and clean energy access. Recently, a report released by the Greenpeace said Delhi is the most polluted capital ..